Meagan Johnson

Meagan Johnson is a generational humorist, bestselling author, and one of the most entertaining and informative speakers on multigenerational workplace dynamics in the country. She is the co-author of Generations Inc.: From Boomers to Linksters, Managing the Friction Between Generations at Work, written with her Baby Boomer father, Larry Johnson.

Decoding the Generational Divide with Humor and Research

Johnson has been researching and speaking on generational issues since 1997, working with over a thousand organizations including Boeing, Intel, Pepsi, Procter and Gamble, and TransUnion. As a Gen Xer who spent the 1990s working for companies like Quaker Oats, Kraft Foods, and Xerox, she heard constant negative stereotypes about her generation and set out to debunk generational myths through in-depth research. She has been quoted by the Chicago Tribune, CNNMoney, and US News and World Report, and featured on ABC Talk Live, NPR, and the Dr. Phil Show.

Turning Generational Friction Into Competitive Advantage

Johnson’s presentations are customized, research-based, and consistently hilarious, giving audiences permission to laugh at their own generation while gaining practical strategies they can use immediately. Her keynotes deliver actionable strategies for bridging generational divides, improving multigenerational communication and collaboration, leveraging generational diversity as a competitive advantage, and building workplace cultures where all generations thrive.

Zap The Gap!- How to Make Peace and Profit in a Multi-Generational World

Job applicants are plentiful and unemployment is high but the fact remains that making the wrong generational choice can cost organizations hundreds of thousand dollars a year. Failure to create a multi-generational team that is effective, productive and profitable puts a company’s future growth and sustainability at risk. Ignoring the drastically diverse ways generations learn and communicate with each other is tantamount to turning your back on a tsunami.

In this highly charged, participative presentation, Meagan outlines the dominant generational forces in the workplace and how each age group’s “generational signposts” drive motivation, influence company loyalty and affect delivery of customer service. Based on pre-conference audience member interviews, Meagan will deliver a roadmap that will enable attendees to tackle their specific generational challenges successfully.

Key issues covered include:

• Generational Signposts: (the roots of generational behavior)
• Source and resolution of generational conflict
• Capturing Baby Boomer brainpower before it walks out the door
• Tapping into Gen Xers’ self-reliant and often autocratic attitudes
• Creating a connectivity breeding ground for Generation Y

As a Gen Xer herself (people born between 1965 and 1980) Meagan takes on generational issues with an insider’s perspective. During the 1990s while working for companies like Quaker Oats, Kraft Foods and Xerox Meagan often heard negative comments about Gen Xers. Terms like “slacker generation,” “gold collar workers,” and the “Beavis and Butthead generation.”

Meagan knew those terms were unfair and untrue, so she began researching small and large businesses to debunk generational myths and uncover the most effective way to solve multi-generational clashes. That research lead to her most popular presentation, ZAP THE GAP How to Make Peace and Profit in a Multi-Generational World was born.

Value:

• Audience Members will walk away with a clear understanding of the source of generational conflict
• Audience Members will understand the cost of hoping it will just go away
• Audience Members will acquire a clear-cut path to multi-generational productivity.
• Audience Members leave armed with De-Coder cards that work as quick refreshers and guides to action they can share with others.

Break Out Session: Zap The Gap: How to Avoid the AFTERMATH

Zap the Gap; How to Avoid the AFTERMATH  is the perfect addition to your meeting agenda. The program allows audience members to take the information and tools acquired during the keynote and put them to the test. Based upon pre-conference interviews, Meagan creates real-life scenarios that reflect the generational challenges participants are facing in their own industry. Meagan leads the group through an in-depth discussion on how to tackle the more perplexing generational obstacles facing people in their work-life and personal-life today. Members walk away from the program with a workbook that will serve as their generational guide when they return to the office and home.

Co-presentation with Baby Boomer DAD

GENERATION TAKEDOWN!

From Boomers To Linksters: Managing The Friction Between Generations

A Generational dual between Gen Xer Meagan & her Baby Boomer co-author (also known as her DAD)

Did you know that Baby Boomers over 50 crave developmental support from supervisors, but don’t get as much as their younger peers?

Or, that Gen Xers are consistently voted the best managers?

Did you know that Generation Y employees are less apt to job hop than Gen Xers — particularly when they view coworkers as friends?

Based on their best-selling book, Generations Inc.: From Boomers to Linksters, Managing the Friction Between Generations at Work, generation expert Meagan Johnson and corporate culture expert Larry Johnson, present the unique perspectives of a Gen-X daughter and her Baby Boomer dad on how each understands, communicates, motivates and manages different generations existing in the workplace today.

Understanding these generational characteristics gives managers an edge in everything from interviewing new hires and designing workstations, to planning meeting agendas, projects and assembling efficient teams.

Throughout the presentation, Meagan and Larry banter back and forth in a delightfully obnoxious, good-natured, humorous style, which helps participants, understand the generational differences found in the workplace today.

You’ll learn:

• Which generations work best in teams and which ones thrive when left alone
• How to tailor feedback and coaching that is appropriate for different age groups
• Classic miscommunication traps between generations and how to navigate around them
• The challenges of managing up: what Gen X and Gen Y managers need to know about their Boomer and Traditional employees and visa versa
• How to use the differences in the generations to make your team more productive
• The secrets to creating a team where everyone works together, even if they don’t want to hold hands and sing Kumbaya